How Could "Experts" Be So Wrong?; The True Facts About Unemployment ; Is Obama Governing or Just Raising Money?

Tattoos:"Not only disgusting and low class, but as you age, they change shape. The cool eagle tattooed on your shoulder at age 18? By age 45 it looks like a seagull with leprosy." --Laura Ingraham

This edition will focus almost entirely on the anemic jobs picture. It's not a good picture, but every American needs to know the facts and the truth behind these disturbing numbers.

• As reported last week, a measly 18,000 jobs were created last month. I re-read several pieces that came out the day before regarding the jobs report. AP and others were reporting the experts anticipated the economy added 120,000-200,000 jobs last month. The consensus forecast was for 90,000 jobs created. How could so-called experts have missed the mark by so much?
• And the economy needs approximately 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with people entering the workforce.
• We've seen 17 months of job losses, compared to 12 months of gains. The largest monthly loss of jobs was 796,000 in March of 2009. The largest monthly job gain was 458,000 in May 2010.
• And we are to believe, as the White House said today, the unemployment rate will drop to 8.2% by 2012? Even if that were to miraculously happen, the White House actually believes 8.2% is good? 
• But there's the U-6 unemployment rate. What's the U-6? It includes people who are underemployed. These are people who want full-time jobs but can't find them. And this rate does not include people who have simply stopped looking for work, because they have no hope left in finding one. That rate went from 15.8% to 16.2 last May.
• And USA Today reports other disturbing data. Temp hiring also fell by 12,000 last month.  In addition, the average work week fell to 34.3 hours from 34.4 hours. Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics said, "It's not a good sign" for the next two months.
• "The June jobs report pegged the nation's nonfarm employment at 131 million in June, a loss of seven million jobs since the start of the recession in December 2007. But the working-age population increases by 100,000 every month, which means the economy should have added an additional 4.2 million jobs to keep pace. That means the real job shortfall since the start of the recession is 11.2 million jobs." (Philadelphia Inquirer based on report from the Economic Policy Institute and U.S. Labor Department).
• An analysis by the White House Dossier reports that of 25 domestic trips on Air Force One by the president, 22 involved mostly fundraising. In other words, about 90% of the president's travels in the last 6 months have been for political reasons. Is that what's called "governing" now?
• About a week ago, the president suggested tax loopholes be closed for some industries including private plane owners. Some might recall the last time we did something similar was with yacht manufacturers in the early 1990's. Might sound good on the surface considering most people think this would target only the "filthy rich." But just the opposite generally happens. The yacht industry almost collapsed because additional taxes didn't hurt the rich, it hurt all of the blue collar folks who built those yachts. The rich simply went overseas to purchase their yachts.  The same would occur with the private plane industry. Targeting that industry would not be targeting the rich, but people like crew members for each plane (from 2-4); dispatchers, mechanics, security personnel, hanger employees, aviation and avionics workers and many more. In other words--it's really stupid policy.
• After all of this horrific economic news and more, I have one simple question for those who still support this administration's policies? WHY?